er, triathlon training.

The past few weeks I’ve been avoiding the pool like the plague because swimming has been very up and down for me. Since the pool is just far enough away to be annoying to get to, I’ve been skipping swim workouts to the point where I started questioning if I actually wanted to do a triathlon. I just keep struggling with breathing and choking on water and water getting into my nose and burning. However, this past week I gave myself an ultimatum: if I didn’t get to the pool at least once, I would just shelve the triathlon idea for the year. Luckily Jon had errands to do on Saturday and sweetly agreed to drop me off at the pool so I would have no excuses not to swim. It worked too! I got there and mercifully the pool was mostly empty (the past few times I’ve went, it’s been crammed full of people doubling up on lanes with everyone splashing around and making huge waves). I hopped in and proceeded with my workout of 3 by 10 lengths with 4 kickboard lengths and 6 freestyle lengths with 12 pound tricep kickbacks between sets. It took the whole first set to get the hang of freestyle again, but by the second set I was feeling a lot better. I found that when I really focus on breathing every 4 strokes, I get much more distance and I can actually exhale fully and am ready to actually take a breath rather than the hurried and frantic feeling I get when I breath every 2 strokes. I also tried to incorporate opposite side breathing a bit, because I can’t always go 4 strokes between breathes every time. I find that doing 4 strokes and breathing, then doing 3 strokes and breathing worked out best for me. I also am getting better at rotating my torso when I breath as opposed to my head and really really trying to get my arms to be in correct form underwater. On the downside though, I was still struggling to make it across the length without having a chocking fit or my rhythm being interrupted by breathing water up my nose. I’m not sure what the consensus is on nose-plugs (I imagine they’re frowned upon by real swimmers) but I think I’m definitely going to try to use mine for the time being so I don’t inhale water and have to stop.

Now that I’ve gotten back to the pool, I decided the only way to commit myself to keep going is to sign up for the 2 triathlons that I was considering doing. Also, my tax return came in, giving me the extra money to register, because damn are triathlons expensive! I ended up signing up for the Olympic triathlon at Philadelphia Insurance Tri in June and the Sprint triathlon at the Philly SheROX Tri. Hopefully this keeps me motivated for training, which if the past is any indication, it will. Spending that kind of money and not following through with my goal is not something I’m OK with. Also, half-assedly training and feeling like I’m going to die on the course is the stuff of nightmares. So, no more phoning in the swimming and biking, it’s time to get serious. My 18 week Olympic Tri training plan begins next week in earnest, so it’s GO TIME.

Speaking of races, I forgot to mention that I successfully registered for the Chicago Marathon just before it sold out, which I didn’t even realize at the time, since it was only 6 days since registration opened. Friends had told me that last year’s marathon took about a month to sell out so I figured I had a little bit of wiggle room, but apparently not! I’m excited to train hard for this fast course and hopefully shave a lot of time off my marathon. I trained haphazardly and was injured for part of my training cycle last fall, so I’m hoping that with no injuries and a much better commitment to training, I can PR, hopefully by a significant number. I also signed up for a BQ training guide through No Meat Athlete. While I have no expectation that I will qualify for Boston this year, reading this post and this post dramatically changed my mindset on fantasy goals like BQ-ing. The quote that stuck with me was this: ““Would you like me to give you a formula for… success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure.” And it’s true. Most people don’t BQ right out of the gate. You have to join the failure club. However, assuming that you can never do it pretty much assures that you never will. This fall I want to go out and run the Chicago Marathon with the hope of qualifying for Boston. I may not (ok I probably won’t) but if I train hard, stay committed and get rid of all the excuses floating in my head, I have a shot. And if I don’t BQ this fall, I’ll BQ next spring. Or next fall again. OR BOTH. I dare you to try too.

Onto my training from last week:

Monday Feb 6 – 5.5 mile run in 46 minutes (8:15 pace)

Tuesday Feb 7 – 6 mile run in 50 minutes (8:14 pace)

Wednesday Feb 8 -weight circuits class

Thursday Feb 9 -REST

Friday Feb 10 -5 mile Zone 3 run in 53 minutes (10:29 pace)

Saturday Feb 11 -1 hour spin class, 775 yard swim in 35 minutes, 2 mile run in 17 minutes (8:22 pace)

Sunday Feb 12 – 4 mile Zone 3 run in 37 minutes (9:02 pace)

Sunday was supposed to be a long run day, but the weather was freezing, the wind was blustery and I ran out of time because Jon and I had plans in the early afternoon. I swapped the long run for today’s short and easy 4 miler, so I should be heading out the door after lunch for the 13-14 miler I have on schedule. It’s still cold out today, but less windy, so I’ll take it. It’s been a while since I’ve had a run of this distance, so I’m a little nervous. Stay tuned to see how it goes!

Anyway, I finally have something to write about. Last night I went to a speed clinic hosted and organized by Philadelphia Runner. At the workshop, there were 4 different sessions, each focusing on a different aspect of how to get faster. It was nice to be surrounded by people in similar situations; most everyone had run several longer races and marathons and were ready to improve their times. The first session for my group was lead by Jesse from Fusion, which is a fitness studio in Philly that emphasizes different types of cross-training. I’ve also heard of Fusion through Jackie, who attended a class last month and was raving about how challenging and awesome it was. He gave us a sheet on the 10 best exercises that runners can do to increase strength:

1. Pistol Squats

2. Suspended Lunges (for a non-TRX version, put your back leg up on a park bench and do lunge)

3. Good Mornings (with free weights or a bar)

4. Planks and Suspended Pikes (for a non-TRX version, do stability ball tuck & pikes: put your feet on a stability ball and pull ball up towards you and hold and repeat)

5. Side Plank Twists

6. Bird Dog crunches

7. V-ups

8. Push-ups

9.Pull-ups

10. Pike push-ups

Some of these exercises I already knew, but Jesse offered a more advanced twist to most of them, like the pike push-ups and the Pistol squats. Some I had never even seen before, like the bird dog crunches and the good mornings. I’m excited to incorporate these into my cross training routine. Right now I do a weights circuit class 1 day a week that uses some of these techniques but I am going to start doing a solo circuit session on the weekend using some of these exercises. I also really want to try out a session at Fusion now :X

The next part of the workshop focused on the different kinds of speed workouts there are. I was hoping for a bit more direction here, but the group leader mostly went over the basics of tempo runs, fartleks, short and long pickups and running hills. I also had an “ah-ha” moment about how to do 800 and 400 meter repeats with out a track. Instead of running on the track, just translate the distance into 1/4 and 1/2  miles and do the repeats like that. I KNOW that 1600 meters = 1 mile, but for some reason I wasn’t breaking that down in my head. I am definitely going to start doing Yasso 800s and hill work, though my hill work is somewhat limited in Philly except for Lemon Hill. I am aiming to have speed work once a week from now until the NYC half-marathon in March as apart of my goal for PRing. I’m also going to really start utilizing the McMillan calculator to figure out my goal paces for speed runs.

After this station, we talked with the several people from Philadelphia Runner about using technology to run smarter and aid recovery. I’m already a huge fan of my Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch and can confidently say that getting that watch totally changed my running. It allowed me to actually get feedback on my run and took out the guesswork of how far and how fast I was running. It’s also great for being able to look back at workouts and see where you might have had issues. My watch also came with a heart rate monitor, which I haven’t used as often as I should, especially since I’m still sort of confused on what to do with the heart rate information once I had it. I know several runners I follow on twitter swear by running in heart rate zones and the Philadelphia Runner guys were also big proponents. Basically you find out your max heart rate (roughly 220-your age), which for me is about 189-192. Once you have that number, you plan your workouts around your zones. Easy runs (done 2-3x a week) should fall between 60-75% of your max heart rate, which for me is 138-157bpm. Harder workouts (done 1-2x a week) should be between 85-90% of your max heart rate, which for me is 176-192bpm. Here’s a handy calculator to figure out your zones.

One of the guys shared a telling story about his running history. When he was a freshman in college, he would run with a fellow freshman and smoke him on easy workouts and keep up with him on harder runs. He felt so good that he would try to keep up with the juniors and seniors. However, when race days would come, the other freshman runner would handily beat him at races and he couldn’t figure out why. His coach told him he was running too hard too often and that he needed to take his easy runs EASY to allow his body to recover better. Once he started to take his easy run days easier (running 60-70% of his max heart rate), he found that he could run even faster on his speed days. Essentially I feel like I’ve been doing the same thing lately. Anymore, whenever I go out to run, I shoot for an 8:00-8:30″ pace. It’s gotten so that it’s not extremely difficult but it’s certainly not an “easy” pace for me. When I was wearing my heart rate monitor, I found that I was regularly clocking averages of 171-185,which means I was running every run at 80% of my max, so every run ended up being a speed workout. The Philadelphia Runner guy said eventually I would start to slow down or possibly injure myself if I kept running every work out hard. He said running slower on easy days will be hard at first (I can already see myself struggling with this) but eventually it will make the fast runs and races faster. This is sort of a revelation for me.

My new goal is to wear my heart rate monitor at every run and next week  just run business as usual to see where my body stands and then the week after, adjust my running so that easy days truly stay between 60-70% of my max heart rate. I’m kind of excited to actually allow myself to slow down. My brain has been very mean to me lately, making me feel like if I don’t push every run, I won’t have a shot at PRing in my half next month, but I’m going to try to change that. He also mentioned I may naturally skew higher in terms of heart rate zones, so for truly accurate results, I should try to figure out my own max heart rate using a simple test. More on heart rate training here and here.

Finally, the last part of the clinic was a complimentary evaluation by Excel Physical Therapy to determine if there were any imbalances or weaknesses in your body that may cause you to get injured. For the test, you were evaluated on about 7 simple exercises or stretches and given a score of 1 (low) to 3 (high), then measured out of 21. Joseph was very nice and said I did the best lunge he’d seen that night (woo!). I ended up getting a 19 out of 21 on the tests (16 was passing), so my over-achieving self was pleased. However, he noticed that my left hamstring was much looser than my right hamstring which may have to do with a hip imbalance and that my left arm is more flexible than my right arm (which I knew from yoga class, since I can do this bind with my left arm but not my right). But he said overall I had nothing to worry about and that I was strong and flexible and should keep doing what I’m doing, so hooray!

Overall I had a really great time at the clinic and was it pretty helpful and informative for an hour and a half of small group lectures. I’m happy I went and am tempted to join their Team Philly race training group just to motivate me to actually do these kinds of workouts. I’ll definitely keep you guys update on how integrating speed work goes, and if any of you have tips or suggestions or are starting your own speed work drills into your workouts, I’d love to hear about it!

If you’ve talked to me at all in the past few weeks, you’d know that I was half dreading/half masochistically looking forward to a trail race that Jackie and I had signed up for on a whim. I think we were both looking for a short, fun race to do in January and stumbled upon the Chilly Cheeks 7.2 mile trail race from Pretzel City Sports, who put on lots of smaller races in central-ish Pennsylvania. We didn’t actually read the course description until AFTER we signed up and then we realized that maybe we had gotten in over our heads. An except from the description:

It tours the mountain overlooking the Pretzel Capital of the world and has rocks & roots, dirt & debris, maybe snow & ice and more rises and falls than most 401k plans in the past 3 years. It is NOT Pretzel City Sports’ hardest race, but on a per mile basis, it is darn close and is a real challenge for even the Type A’s who would normally laugh at the concept of only running 7 miles.

Eeps. Not exactly the easiest first trail race we could have chosen. But Jackie, being a type-A, and me, not one to give up if someone else is going through with it, decided to go for it anyway. Jackie’s trainer from PSC, who is a avid trail racer and ultra-marathoner (and who actually just completed a marathon trail race the week before) decided to join us. Sunday morning, with the temperature hovering around 10 degrees, Jackie picked me up and we all made our way to Reading, PA for the race, which is about an hour away.  After a few turn-arounds when we got close to the mountain (THAT WE WOULD SHORTLY BE RUNNING UP), we found our way to the super adorable Reading Liederkranz German Singing & Sports Club where we picked up our bibs and tee-shirts. We were running a little late so after pinning our bibs on, we walked outside with everyone else to the start of the trail. As soon as we got back outside, I was shivering and my toes and fingers froze.

We milled around for a few minutes while the race director told us about how the course was marked and then suddenly the race started! There ended up being a very large number of people doing this smallish trail run, so the first part of the race was a lot of slow jogging and short-stopping due to being in a huge group. The beginning of the trail was a nice flat dirt surface, which made for easy running. However, after about 1/4 of a mile, the trail veered to the right and suddenly I saw a giant hill that runners had begun *climbing* up. I knew the trail would be hilly, but honestly I was not prepared to have such a steep hill. Lots of runners were crawling on all fours and grasping for roots, trees and rocks to scramble up the enormous incline. It was definitely a sign of things to come and showed me just how difficult this race was going to be.

After we scaled the hill, we ran through a paved area, crossed a street then climbed up another hill to get back on the trail. From there the course stayed flat for about a mile and we were high enough up by then to have a scenic view over the town of Reading. About this time my hands started to painfully warm up.  I’m glad I ended up putting on mittens over my mizuno running gloves, they definitely added a lot of warmth. Also the huge crowd of people started to thin out and it made for much easier running. Sadly, though, this easy flat trail quickly turned back into the woods, where we had to jump over so many fallen trees that I lost count. The trail turned very rocky at some points too, which meant I had to be really careful when I ran. I kept looking ahead at other more experienced trail runners and tried to mimic how they attacked the terrain by sort of jumping *off* of rocks side to side quickly instead of running straight down them. I also learned that on sharp declines, you need to drop your arms and hands and have them ready to shoot out in front of you in case you lose your balance or fall.

For the next 4 miles or so, the trail was a serious of steep, sharp inclines followed by rough, slippery declines. At least 5 other people near me fell.  One woman slid all the way down a hill right before the first water station.  Luckily, I managed to keep my footing and balance and never ended up falling, which was my only goal for this race (for practical reasons: since I don’t have health insurance, I dread getting an injury). On many of the inclines, we were mostly forced to walk briskly because it was too steep to effectively run. There was more jumping over fallen trees and leaping on rocks and also a beer station, where I gladly nabbed a cup of half frozen beer. Yes there was an ice cube of beer floating in my cup.

Eventually, around mile 5, we began our final ascent to the top of Mt. Penn. Surprisingly I still felt really strong, and was having no trouble passing other wheezing (male!) runners. I actually felt like the hills were where I made a lot of gains. My thighs felt pretty strong, so I tried to jog up as many as I could, while other runners had resorted to walking.  The final stretch to the top of the hill felt like it would never end, every  time you thought you were closing in, you had to make another switchback. Once we got to the top, it was a quick hop over a guard rail to the road. I tried to take some victory self portraits while running and they turned out really silly. see right.

From there, I had about 3/4-1/2 mile left in the course (though according to my garmin, there was still a full mile). We ran briefly on the road at the top and I craned my neck to try to get a glance at the view but we were on the opposite side of the road so I didn’t see much. Soon after, the course veered back on the trail into the woods and it was thankfully flat, but stony. Lots and lots of hopping on stones, hoping they wouldn’t slide under foot! We shot out from the trail into a grassy area and crossed over a small bridge. At this point I knew I was close to finishing. We crested the top of a very muddy, grassy hill and had to side step (or as I did – gracefully slide) down the side of the hill back to where we started the course. Except this time instead of continuing back on it, we had to scale one last huge hillside to get to the parking lot and the finishing chute. Let me tell you, that last hill was KILLER. Also, I got a bit tangled up with another woman who was going slower. I felt like a jerk but I just wanted to pass her so I could scramble up faster. At one point, I sort of ran into her while grabbing ahold of a tree and she said “just go for it” and moved out of my way. Once I got to the top, there were tons of people cheering and someone was blowing a fog horn. I had to walk for a second because the hill almost killed my thighs but when I saw I had mere seconds to cross the finish line before it turned to 1:31:00, I booked it to the end and unofficially crossed the line at 1:30:58 (what can I say, it sounds better to say “I finished in 1:30″ rather than 1:31. I like even numbers)!

After I finished, I grabbed some fig newtons and tried to get water but it was so cold out that the nozzles on the coolers had frozen so no one could get water until some genius took off the top and we dipped cups in. We all got a free “hot breakfast” with race entry too, so after meeting up with Maggie (who, being a pro, had finished in 1:15) who was warming up in the clubhouse, I ran to get my gelatinous scrambled eggs and pancakes. While I was waiting in line, a girl actually came up to me and said she had been running behind me for a good portion of the race and that I was “fucking amazing.” She kept telling me how impressive I was and looked at me very seriously as she said it. It was really really flattering, but I honestly had to bite my tongue so I didn’t laugh. Me, impressive? On my first trail race, and a hard one at that, in the middle of January? Well ok, I’ll take it!

Jackie met up with us a few minutes later and we all started recounting our personal race stories. Unfortunately Jackie had a small tumble and landed right on her butt, leaving a bruise and hip pain (I hope she’s feeling better today). It also turned out that Maggie had run so well that she may have placed in her age group, so we decided to stick around till the awards to see if she’d get a trophy. After a bit of waiting and lots of other awards being announced, we found out that Maggie DID place! She ended up getting 4th in the 30-39 age group, which was so awesome. Now she has a trophy with a little naked baby on top to commemorate the day. I later asked her how this trail race compared to her previous trail races, in terms of difficulty and she said it definitely ranked up there.

In the end, I’m kind of glad this was my inaugural trail run because now I feel like I’m prepared for anything. I actually had a really awesome time during this race, despite how painful it was. I felt really strong and I didn’t feel the need for headphones at all during the race because navigating the trail and having to keep an eye on surroundings kept my brain active. And in a way, running through the woods just plain reminded me of being a kid again. I honestly can’t wait for my next trail race now and I know Jackie said she would definitely sign up for this race again next year. I need to find another one for the springtime, obviously. Now I just need some dedicated trail shoes!

splits: some of my splits were absolutely hilarious. also my GPS watch measured the race as only 6.71 miles, so who knows:

mile 1: 14:27:15
mile 2: 12:30:13
mile 3: 14:06:38
mile 4: 14:41:62
mile 5: 11:11:78
mile 6: 16:28:37
mile 7: 7:37:91

average pace: 13:34, avg speed: 4.4,

Below is a gallery of some other photos I took during and after the race (some of the photos in this post are credit to Jackie – she took more interesting ones during the race than I did). Today my calves are definitely sore from scaling that mountain, which is a nice feeling. Now if I can get out for my 4 mile easy run today, I’ll be happy!

[Show as slideshow]

This black bean avocado salad has been one of my favorite meals lately. It’s simple, cheap and extremely flexible, so you can add or subtract ingreidents based on what’s in your pantry or what you’re craving. Also, avocados have been super cheap at the grocery store lately, so it’s perfect for taking advantage of them! Hat tip to Oh She Glows for the original inspiration.

1 can low sodium black beans

1/4-1/2 can of corn

1 ripe avocado

1/4-1/2 red onion (or 2-3 shallots if you’re fancy)

juice of 1-2 fresh limes (don’t use the gross plastic container lime juice, trust me)

5-6 stems of cilantro (or if you’re like me, half a bunch, ha)

salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

1 tsp cumin

1/2 cup cooked quinoa

1 tbsp olive oil

Drain and rinse the black beans and corn and put in a medium bowl. Cut the avocado in half and cube it into small squares and stir  into the beans and corn so that everything is lightly coated in avocado. Dice the red onion into very small pieces and add to bowl. Add the lime juice. Pluck the cilantro leaves from the stems and cut into small slivers with a knife, then add to bean and avocado mixture and stir. Add the salt and pepper to taste.

This salad is so refreshing and uses 3 of my favorite ingredients: Lime juice, cilantro and avocado! It’s also chock full of protein, especially if you add the quinoa, which I highly recommend. You can also add olive oil, though personally I don’t think this recipe needs it as you get a lot of flavor and moisture from the lime juice. Also, if you’re feeling extra nosh-y, this makes a great dip for tortilla chips!

In other non-food related news, the weather has started to get a bit colder in Philly today. I knew the absurd 60 degree weather wouldn’t last but honestly I’m a little sad to see it go. However, the update from my Ohio friends is that it’s snowing in Columbus, so I’m pretty happy that we’re avoiding that here.  It IS super windy today though, which I’m not pleased with since I wanted to get out for a 6 mile run. I over-extended myself in the early part of this week which led to major slackage from Wednesday on. I did manage to go to yoga last night, but the class had a substitute instructor that I did not mesh with. I find that instructors that aren’t at least moderately hippy-dippy, or come from a more athletic background, are not the kind of instructors I like. To me, yoga is as much about the inner journey as it is about balance and strengthening your core. Last night’s instructor turned part of the class into essentially an abs workout then only allowed for a 1-2 minute Shavasana, which irked me. Mariel’s Anusura yoga class is tonight and I definitely plan on going.

Tomorrow I hope to go to David’s 9am spin class again then maybe hit the pavement for a 5-6 mile race pace run before settling in to an afternoon spent tasting and writing about gin (oh my hobbies, they are so conflicting).  And Sunday is my first 7.2 mile trail race with Jackie, which I’m masochistically excited for.  The weather appears to be sunny and in the mid-30s, which I think will be perfect. What are your fitness plans for the weekend?

Yesterday I agreed to join Jackie and her friend Jordan for their 6:30am spin class at PSC. Ever since I met Jackie, she’s been raving about her spin class with instructor Jason, saying he’s a hardass but plays amazing music (AKA the latest pop hits, don’t judge). However, I belong to Sweat so I never had the opportunity to try their class out, until Jackie got a free month promo for PSC in the mail.  After a bit of peer pressure, I agreed to check out their class yesterday morning. Now, the only downside for me (besides having to wake up at 6am!) was that the PSC location they go to is at 18th and Market, which is about 2 miles away from my apartment. It doesn’t sound too far on paper, but at 6am, in the pitch black, a 30-40 minute walk was not really on my list of things I wanted to do. I thought about driving, but that just seemed pointless, so I dusted off my bike and Jon refilled my tires and found me his old bike lock (I forgot the combo for MINE ugh) and I committed to biking there.

Now, Philly is far and away a much more bike-friendly city than Columbus is (though I never biked much in Columbus outside of the Olentangy Bike Path), simply based the fact that there are lots of bike lanes and I regularly see lots of bike commuters. However, ever since moving here I’ve been terrified to do much road biking, even with the abundance of bike lanes. To get to the Spruce or Pine bike lanes, I’d still have to ride on the road next to cars and the possibility of getting run over, or getting smashed in the face by someone opening a car door terrifies me, especially since I don’t currently have health insurance :X Luckily, the roads at 6am are pretty much empty, so when I hopped on my bike, I was actually feeling fairly confident about the ride. I’m happy to report that I biked both to PSC and back without any incidents! Also, the spin class was awesome as advertised! Thanks Jackie and Jordan, for inviting me, I may join you again next week! I know this is such a small thing to be proud of, but for me, getting over the anxiety and actually just getting on my bike and doing it was a big deal. Now that I’ve gotten over that initial hump, I really hope to do more bike-commuting.  It’s so much more ridiculously fast than walking to places that I can’t imagine not doing it more often now. I’m still slightly scared of accidents (check out Carrie’s great post on safety issues with runners in bike lanes and challenges faced by bikers in general in Philly), but I’m going to commit to trying to bike at least once a week.  If any cyclists or bikers have any tips for riding in the city safely, or group rides, I would love to hear it!

And now, a confession. I am having a very hard time finding balance in my training. Last month I was struggling to even get off the couch and run. This month, I am having a very hard time letting my body rest. I officially started to run again on a schedule and then began to incorporate swimming and biking and yoga (and strength training!) into my routine, which is where the problem started. I just don’t know how to train for a triathlon successfully yet without over doing it. I love that I’ve been getting back into yoga, and don’t want to give that up. Neither do I want to let go of strength training, because I’m hoping to stay strong and uninjured this year. However, how on earth to I maintain all of these activities PLUS swim/bike/run and not get burnt the heck out? Right now I have an abundance of free time, so going to all these classes and running hasn’t changed too much of my personal life, however it’s definitely making me a little crazy. It’s impossible to keep up with the level of activity I’ve been doing on a long term basis, especially when you factor a full time job into things. And my body is screaming at me to slow down. Seasoned Triathletes (I’m looking at you, Katie!), how do you train for a tri but still find time to work, hang out with friends/significant others, and not burn yourself out training all the time? HALP.

By this point, all my long-run jitters were gone and I was very excited to get going. After I strapped on my water belt, watch and visor (first time using it!), I hit the road. The first 6 miles just BREEZED by. I did have some problems slowing down in the beginning due to the faster short runs I’ve been doing lately, so my splits were a little all over the map, however for the first 6 miles I felt awesome and strong and fast. I decided to run 11 miles instead of 10 because it was so pretty out. Around mile 9, I started to get an intense stomach cramp and sort of regretted going out for the extra mile. I took a potty break (tmi, sorry) at Boathouse Row and felt a bit better and just tried my best to power through the rest of the run. I packed a gu, but I (foolishly?) decided not to eat it during the run. Maybe it would have helped prevent the stomach cramp? Not sure what the deal was with the cramps, but they continued all day Sunday too, until I finally took an Imodium. Here are my splits from the run:

mile 1: 8:57/mile
mile 2: 10:08/mile
mile 3: 9:42/mile
mile 4: 10:08/mile
mile 5: 9:51/mile
mile 6: 9:50/mile
mile 7: 9:57/mile
mile 8: 10:18/mile
mile 9: 10:06/mile
mile 10: 10:14/mile
mile 11: 10:16/mile

Total: 11 miles in 1:50:00, 9:57/mi average pace.

I was aiming for long-run splits around 9:30-10:30, so I’m very very happy with this run, despite the crappy cramps for the last 1/3. I also need to work on not going out fast. Next weekend I’m doing the Chilly Cheeks 7.2 mile trail race with Jackie so I probably will just count that as my long run, especially since she talked to a friend about the race and he  mentioned that someone he knew ran it and how ridiculously difficult it was, as in he ran 7 miles in the same amount of time that he ran a half marathon. Cue freak out.

Speaking of freaking out, I still STILL haven’t decided on a spring marathon.  I might just skip a spring marathon and concentrate on the June triathlon because I really don’t want to injure myself or get burnt out, which I’m already sort of feeling. I also need to pick a training plan for the tri AND for a marathon/half-marathon. Looking at the Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 or Advanced 1 plans for the marathon and the Beginner Triathlete 20 week 3x Balanced plan for the Olympic Tri. In no way do I think I’m advanced but the Advanced plan is the only one that incorporates some speed work and hills, which I did want to try. I made the first step and printed each plan out and I’ll try to spend this week comparing them and coming up with my own amalgamation of them all. I think this is really the hardest part of my training so far – just trying to coordinate everything into a concrete schedule that I can follow instead of the slapdash haphazard runnings/swimming/biking that I’ve been doing. Anyway, enough with my training plan agonizing. Here’s what my training looked like for the first week of 2012 (also my super awesome tee-shirt/capris/sun visor outfit from Saturday’s hot long run!)

Mon: 4.19 miles in 35mins; 8:19 pace

90 minute Anusara Yoga class

Tue: 5.51 miles in 47mins; 8:32 pace

Wed: 1 hour of weights circuits with Donna

45 mins of swimming laps & drills with Holly

Thur: 4.01 miles in 35mins; 8:45 pace

75 minute Vinyasa Yoga class with Alex

Fri: 45 mins of swimming laps: 15 laps alternating with 3 sets of 25 tricep kickbacks with 8lb weights

Sat: 60 minute spin class with David

11 miles in 1:50mins; 9:57 pace

Sun: Rest

Here’s to hoping this week’s training will be just as successful!

Ok, not races (yet), but shoes! I won free shoes! Yesterday I decided to go for a quick 4 mile run before going to a potluck because I knew I’d run out of daylight if I put it off till afterward. I ran my normal route through center city and on a whim decided to stop into Philadelphia Runner to look at new shoes for the upcoming season. I also remembered they were holding a contest for the new line of Asics GEL-EXCEL33s where the 33rd person to try them on would win a free pair. However, the contest had been going on for a while and I assumed they had already found a winner. Just in case, I decided to try on a pair anyway, if only to see what the hype was about. When the salesperson brought them out, I was immediately in love with the style. I love black running shoes and the shock of bright pink really makes them noticeable and snazzy looking. I currently run with Mizuno Wave Rider 14s, which are great neutral shoes for a chronic under-pronater like myself.  The Asics 33s are much cushier feeling and a little lighter, which is a nice change. I also felt a little less shock to my legs when I was running in them in the store.  As I was untying them, the salesperson asked if I knew there was a contest going on for the 33s and then told me I was the 33rd person to try them on and that I was now wearing my very own new pair of Asics!!! Seriously the best moment of the year so far. I couldn’t believe I had won! Here’s a terribly unflattering photo of me looking sweaty but excited:

After they wrapped up the shoes, I had to race home since I was running really late for the potluck.  I managed to finish the 4 mile run (while holding a bag in one hand for half the way) in 34:55, with a pace of 8:19 per mile. On a side note, I’m excited that my shorter runs have been consistently coming in at under 8:30 per mile.  This is a huge difference compared to the 11 minute miles I was running during my marathon training and gives me hope that I really will get faster this year. Still need to work on that pesky interval training at some point though.

In other non-shoe-winning related news, I found out I was accepted to run the NYC Half Marathon on March 18th in Manhattan, which I’m super pumped for! I’ve never run in NYC before and the course sounds amazing (central park, midtown, times square?!). It also gives me a reason to stick with training this winter, especially since I haven’t committed to a spring marathon yet. I also applied for non-guaranteed entry into the ING NYC Marathon in November, whose registration opened up yesterday. I don’t have high hopes of being accepted, but I just read that non-guaranteed runners have a 1 in 10 chance to be accepted to race from the lottery and those are odds I can still hold out hope for. I plan on signing up for the Chicago marathon in October as a back up. And today, Jackie and I signed up for the Chilly Cheeks 7.2 mile trail race in Reading, PA in 2 weeks. Neither of us read the course description before signing up and we later realized that this is probably going to be a pretty difficult trail run with mountains, streams, and hills, all run in the cold January temps. Oh well, whatever doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger right?

I’m a very goal oriented person, which has always made resolution-setting attractive to me. This is not to say I actually achieve all my resolutions (or even half of them) but I do enjoy thinking of new challenges.  Looking back over this past year, I realized that most of my resolutions involved huge and sometimes scary changes in my life. At the same time, this has been one of the most rewarding and best years of my life and I think these two things are very much related.

In 2011 I:

-Started learning more about “mixology”, and slowly built our booze collection. Started a fun blog with Jon chronicling our cocktail experiments and have had great feedback from people that have enjoyed the blog.

-Started really running for the first time since high school. Ran a half-marathon, a 10k, a marathon and a 5-mile race. Steadily got stronger and faster.

-Quit my job and finally got the courage to move from Columbus to Philadelphia.

-Moved in with Jon and we haven’t killed each other yet

-Made a bunch of awesome new friends and have fun things to do regularly (potlucks, book clubs, girls nights)

-formed a weekly quizzo team full of awesome people. #SHARKTOBERFEST!

-started volunteering for a few organizations that I feel very strongly about.

-stopped being helpless in the kitchen and slowly taught myself how to cook and bake. I’m still learning.

With all the things that I accomplished in 2011, it was hard to think of new goals that would make 2012 even have a fighting chance at being as awesome as 2011 was. However, here’s a list of the ones I could think of so far:

-complete an olympic and sprint triathlon.

-run 1-2 more marathons, and run them under 4:30

-2-3 more half-marathons, and run them under 2:00

-stick with cross-training and weight-lifting so I don’t injure my knees and legs running.

-go to yoga at least once a week (ideally 2 times)

-swim at least 2-3 times a week

-get a permanent job that’s in my field

-move into a bigger place that fits 2 people with 8 large bookcases of books and 2 dogs better.

-join a CSA in the summer and learn how to can/preserve.

-continue to learn how to bake and cook better (take a decorating class from Jackie, try to make at least 1 new recipe a week from my pile of cookbooks)

-eat a salad before every dinner

-volunteer more regularly with Monster Milers

-start volunteering with Students Run Philly Style (orientation is in late January!)

-the ever popular “lose 10 pounds” (I would like to be back at my happy weight)

-read 100 books (I suppose realistically that should be around 75, as I ended up only reading 64 in 2011)

-keep my fledgling classics book club going

-GET BACK TO BLOGGING REGULARLY ON MY BOOK BLOG

WHEW. well, I think that’s enough for now. Do you make resolutions? What are some of the things you hope to achieve or change this year?

  We decided to try for 3-4 miles since A. I’ve been slacking off on running longer distances and B. Jackie is still feeling her chest cold. Also, we decided to forgo headphones since Jackie’s marathon in Napa forbids them and I’ve been wanting to ween myself off them. Immediately as we started the run, we were surrounded by gorgeous scenery: gurgling streams, fallen trees, mossy rocks.  It was so much fun to run through the woods on a quiet, chilly day. There weren’t too many people out either, generally just solo people and their dogs, making it very tranquil. I actually didn’t once miss having my headphones, which is kind of surprising because I’m usually not able to stay at a reasonable pace unless I’m blasting The Worst pop music into my ears (though technically I was humming a Britney Spears song which we had just heard on the radio before getting to the park :X). We kept to an average pace of 9:30, which was perfect for enjoying the lovely scenery and snapping a few cell phone photos. We picked up the pace at the end and finished strong, doing a total of 3.5 miles in 33:24.

Overall I think we both really enjoyed the change of pace and setting. I hope to get in a few more trail runs before it starts to really get deep into winter.  What are some of your favorite trails to run?

Almost all the books and blogs I read recommended getting a swimming coach, at least in the beginning, to learn how to do a proper and efficient stroke. I learned that more than anything else, in swimming, proper form is critical and can make a HUGE difference in ability and speed. So after a few weeks of phone tag with the swim instructor at my gym, I was finally able to schedule a training session.

I was pretty nervous before my lesson, and also have been lazy about running this week, so I decided to burn off some energy by running over to the gym (which is not the location in my neighborhood). This was actually pretty complicated too, as I needed to bring a small bag for my wallet/phone/change of clothes/lock. I basically just ran 2 quick, freezing miles with a small bag criss-crossed on over my shoulders, which, besides feeling almost strangled for most of the run, wasn’t too bad.

Once I got there and changed, I sat around nervously at the pool until my instructor, Holly, showed up. Holly was super peppy and nice and I immediately felt very comfortable around her, which isn’t an easy task because most trainers intimidate or annoy me. For starters, she had me jump into the pool and do 2 laps so she could see what she was working with. I was sort of expecting this, but I haven’t put my head below water in YEARS, so it was actually kind of scary at first. After the intro laps, we worked on my stroke form. Holly said that I had excellent reach, great head placement and an awesome kick but very little power in my stroke. She attempted to show me how to do a proper stroke to add power, but I got a little confused when she tried to show me how to incorporate more of an “S” curve to the motion of my arm underwater and I ended up failing my way through a few kick board aided laps. After that, we dropped the “S” curve motion and just refocused on a full arm extension, gliding, then putting tension in my arm to paddle the water forcefully away from my body under water. This was something I could grasp a little easier so there were a lot of laps where one arm was clinging to a kick board and the other was working on that sequence. I struggled a bit trying to incorporate everything she was telling me, but I know it’ll get easier to handle once I start swimming more. After about 12 laps focusing on different elements of the stroke, I did a final two laps without a kick board trying to use all the elements we talked about. By that point, I was definitely huffing and puffing and gasping for air so the laps didn’t feel AWESOME but she said they already looked significantly improved from just 45 minutes ago.  She also kept complimenting my kick, which I’m sure was just to bolster my low swimming self-esteem but hey, it worked! Then she had me jump out of the pool and immediately do 25 tricep kickbacks with 10 pound weights. HOLY OUCH.

In general, swimming was a huge shock to my system. I feel like after the marathon, I was in decent endurance shape. However, when I was swimming, I felt like I had a completely new set of lungs; possibly the lungs of an obese smoker. When I started, the lap length seemed laughably short but I ended up having to stop mid-lap just so I could catch my breath and was panting and gasping as soon as I finished each lap. I literally am starting from the very beginning with swimming, and I know that I’ll only get better by doing it more, but I have to admit, this is pretty intimidating for me, with the added hurdle of the pool being a little far away from my apartment, which generally makes it harder to get myself to go there.

My homework is to swim twice more this week, doing 3 sets of 4 laps, with 25 tricep kickbacks between each set, then we can have our second session. I’m hoping to get the motivation to go by myself tomorrow, so cross your fingers. I know if I don’t go back within the next few days, I’ll probably just never swim again, so I MUST GO!